Ripe Frenzy Rolls Into Greenway Court Theatre May 17 – June 17

WINNER of the 2016 NNPN Smith Prize for Political Theatre, Ripe Frenzy submerges us in the before, during and after of a mass shooting in a small-town high school theatre, during opening night of its 40th production of Our Town. Told from the perspective of the mothers of the town, the play questions our own culpability in the perpetuation of mass shootings in our country.

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In the Press

L.A. Times (Critic’s Choice), Review
‘Ripe Frenzy,’ a play about a school shooting, provokes thought with lyricism and restraint

L.A. Weekly, Review
Ripe Frenzy: A Chillingly Emotional Play on Mass School Shootings

Time Out Los Angeles, News
5 L.A. Theater Productions To See This May

AmericanTheatre.org, Feature
Plays About Guns, With Varying Aims

BroadwayWorld.com, News Desk
Ripe Frenzy Comes To Greenway Court Theatre

About the Team

Playwright

Jennifer Barclay is a Chicago-bred actor-turned-playwright, recently relocated to the DC area where she is a member of Arena Stage’s 2017-18 Playwrights’ Arena. Jennifer is the recipient of the National New Play Network’s 2016 Smith Prize for Political Theatre, for Ripe Frenzy. Ripe Frenzy was developed at Woolly Mammoth and the 2017 Ojai Playwrights Conference, and will premiere in 2018 at New Rep in Boston and Synchronicity Theatre in Atlanta. Jennifer’s plays have been produced and developed by Steppenwolf, La Jolla Playhouse, The Old Globe, RedCat, The Kennedy Center, Center Stage, The International Theatre of Vienna and The Edinburgh Fringe.

Awards include: Samuel Goldwyn Writing Award, Kennedy Center National Science Playwriting Award, Pinter Review Gold Medal. Jennifer has been a Fellow at the MacDowell Colony, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Hawthornden International Writers Retreat in Scotland. Jennifer has been a Playwright in Residence at South Coast Rep (Shank Playwright in Residence 2009-10) and Center Stage (Playwrights Collective 2015-16).

She has a degree in Theatre from Northwestern University and an MFA in Playwriting at UC San Diego, where she studied with Naomi Iizuka. Jennifer is an Assistant Professor of Playwriting and Performance at the University of Maryland. Currently she is developing Yellowstone: the ballad of the red-state white man (Finalist for the 2017 NNPN National Showcase of New Plays) and American Prosperity Gospel (upcoming workshop at Woolly Mammoth, directed by Shana Cooper).  www.BarclayStudios.com.

Director

Alana Dietze‘s previous directing credits include The Found Dog Ribbon Dance, Dry Land, A Small Fire, and Laileen on the Way Down all with the Echo Theater Company. Her production of Dry Land was selected for CTG’s inaugural Block Party program and re-mounted at the Kirk Douglas Theater in 2017. That production received seven Ovation Nominations including Best Production in a Large Theater, Best Director, and Best Ensemble. The Echo’s production of Dry Land won the 2016 Ovation Award for Best Production in an intimate theater. It was also nominated for four Stage Raw Awards (including Best Director and Best Production) and one LADCC award. Found Dog was included in the Echo’s 2017 Ovation nomination for Best Season and A Small Fire received four Ovation Nominations, one LADCC nomination and two Stage Raw nominations. Alana has also directed workshops, short plays and readings for EST/LA, Occidental College, Moving Arts, and Antaeus. Alana is also an Ovation-nominated actress and has appeared on stage with the Echo, Circle X, Theatre of NOTE, The Vagrancy, New Guard, Padua Playwrights and more. She is an alumna of Occidental College and has served as the Echo’s Literary Manager since 2008. 

Creative Team

Jared Mezzocchi, Video Projection Designer
Artistic Director of Andy’s Summer Playhouse.
Winner 2012 Princess Grace Award-winner for Projection Design.

Amanda Knehans, Set Designer
Dry Land at Echo Theater Company and the Kirk Douglas Theatre.
2018 Ovation Award-nominee.

Elena Flores, Costume Designer
Dry Land at Echo Theater Company and Kirk Douglas Theatre.

Azra King-Abadi, Lighting Designer
LA Phil and LA Opera productions.

John Zalewski, Sound Designer
Belleville at Pasadena Playhouse.

Cast

Elizabeth Ann Bennett as Zoe
ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy and Castle.

Renee Marie Brewster as Felicia
Member of the Echo Theater Company.
American Repertory Theater’s Alice vs. Wonderland as Alice.
CBS’s The Soul Man as Shelly.

Melody Butiu as Miriam
Broadway’s Doctor Zhivago directed by Des McAnuff.
Originated the title role of the Pulitzer Prize Nominated production of The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow at South Coast Repertory.

Troy Leigh-Anne Johnson as Hadley / Bethany
Member of the Echo Theater Company’s Associate Company.

Liam Springthorpe as Matt / Bryan James McNamara
Raludom Theater Company’s Den of Thieves at the Hollywood Fringe Festival.
Gruesome Playground Injuries at the Stephanie Feury Theatre.

For more information about the National New Play Network (NPNN), please visit their website, nnpn.org.

Poems are Gay – Night Two of the L.A. Get Down

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Back to the Get Down

Night Five of the Get Down

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Back to the Get Down

Casting Call! What It Iz, part of the LA Get Down!

Seeking Union and Non-Union Singers/Rappers/Poets/Actors of All Types for the following roles:

DOROTHY: A teen searching for life in the stars.

THE WIZ: A man in his 40’s serving a life sentence.

MA/EVILESE: A single mom in her 30’s/Envy incarnate.

ANITA/ASSATA: Dorothy’s BFF/A paranoid revolutionary.

PETO/PLATINUM: Dorothy’s other BFF/Rapper of the Year.

DEACON/SMOOTH: Ma’s BFF/A hustler fresh out of prison.

MAYOR/JUDGE/OBC: A mean soul drunk off his own power.

OBB/BEAUTY/STAGE MANAGER: The belligerent narcissist.

EYE AM/BAILIFF/DJ: A mystic guardian angel in disguise.

NARRATOR/SCALPER/CO1: Storyteller/Agent of The System.

REPORTER/SCALPER/CO2: Shrewd Journalist/Mr. Status Quo.

REPORTER/NEWSCASTER/HYPEMAN: Frustrated Journalist/Wack MC.

MOVEMENT SPIRIT/DIVA DANCER/CREW: The Show-stealing Chorus

Adapted by ten incarcerated artists in a creative writing workshop at the oldest women’s prison in the state, the California Institute for Women (CIW), WHAT IT IZ is a prison abolitionist, hip hop theater and spoken word remix of The Wiz.  The spring performances at Greenway Court Theater benefit programs serving incarcerated youth at BJN Juvenile Hall – where workshops based on the production, engaging human rights and transformative justice, have inspired an oral history project and college course using theater to develop legislative proposals. Producer will be applying to Theatre Authority for use of Equity performers in a benefit performance.

Email casting@greenwayartsalliance.org for an appointment

Audition slots available Wednesday, March 28, 6-9 pm

Monday, April 2, 2-5 pm

Four rehearsal in April

Two Performances (Staged Readings) April 27th and 28th, part of the LA Get Down Festival

BACKGROUND: In the early 1900s, L. Frank Baum imagined a world where money did not exist and women were all powerful.  More than 100 years later, a new generation of creative visionaries has its own fresh take on that wonderful world called Oz.  This 21st century urban parody remixes Baum’s classic and the 1970s Broadway musical-turned-motion picture “The Wiz” – starring Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Richard Pryor, Lena Horne, with music by Luther Vandross and Quincy Jones.  The film inspired the writing of this play as much as the Broadway hit before it, which featured Stephanie Mills, André De Shields and Phylicia Rashad.  The early development of WHAT IT IZ included stage readings and workshop performances at the Nuyorican Poet’s Cafe and American Place Theater in New York City, the Longwharf Theater and Yale Theater in New Haven and at Harvard University. The west coast debut performances sold out during opening weekend in spring 2017 at the Los Angeles Theater Center in downtown LA, and opened the inaugural “Beyond the Bars LA” conference calling for strategies to bring about the end of mass incarceration.

THE REMIX: For more than a century, audiences worldwide have enjoyed the tale of the Tin Man’s search for a heart, the Scarecrow’s search for a brain, and the Cowardly Lion’s search for courage.  This time around, Dorothy is transported from the disco era into a new millennium facing terrorism, police brutality, government corruption, music industry shenanigans, street hustlers, new world technology, and the world’s largest prison population.  Meet a notoriously sexist “Platinum” rap star longing for self-love; a small-time hustler named “Smooth” whose lack of knowledge of self keeps him from being smooth enough to avoid repeat arrests for the same crime; a paranoid Black Panther wanna-be “Assata” in search of self-determination after barely surviving the 9/11 suicide attacks.  This adaptation transports Dorothy’s journey from the Bay area of 1979 to LA in 2017.

WHAT IT IZ fuses the soulful, musical style of the ’70s hit with the urban lyricism of hip hop and spoken word poetry.  Critics compare the show to the Tony Award-winning “Def Poetry Jam on Broadway” and “Hamilton” which have introduced traditional theater goers to the adrenalin-injected idioms of hip hop and spoken word.  Directed by the creator and performer of the Harry Belafonte produced “Lyrics From Lockdown,” critically acclaimed poet, actor and prison activist Bryonn Bain, the production is written in the verse of our time by a group comprised of formerly and currently incarcerated artists, Blackout Arts Collective (BAC).  This grassroots arts/activism coalition spearheaded the early development of the show while bringing performances and workshops to prisons in 25 states nationwide.  An award-winning network of artists, activists, and educators, BAC has used the arts and culture to catalyze action around critical issues in innovative ways to inspire social change since 1997.  Dramaturgy by Disney fellow and NYU drama professor Michael Dinwiddie, and Lincoln Center iconoclast Imani Douglas, this production pays homage to a timeless classic while providing a launchpad for dialogue and action around mass incarceration and its impact on our families and communities using subversive verse, beats, rhymes and comedy.

Tell Pharaoh – A Free Reading for Black History Month

Loften Mitchell’s Tell Pharaoh is Black History. Join us as we honor Black History with this staged reading.

Let the record be read, and read well, this is the true telling of our journey from Africa to Harlem.

Reserve Seats

Greenway Court Theatre

544 N Fairfax Ave

Los Angeles, CA 90036